Other Expenses

In addition to capital campaign expenditures, Radcliffe's general and administrative expenses have grown markedly over the past few years, while its educational costs have increased at a slower rate.

In FY 1992, Radcliffe spent about $1.5 million on general and administrative expenses, excluding debt service. By FY 1995, that number had reached $2.5 million, a 67 percent increase.

Over the same time period, Radcliffe's educational expenditures rose from $6.2 to $7.6 million, a 21.8 percent increase, a rise only one-third as rapid as that of the administrative costs.

But Ladd notes that burgeoning administrative costs are a problem beyond the gates of Radcliffe Yard.

"For a variety of reasons, administrative costs have risen at all universities and colleges," he says.

"It's [administrative expenditures] something we're looking at and doing our best to contain at all levels within the University," says Huidekoper.

Still, Huidekoper notes that Radcliffe's rapidly rising administrative costs do make it somewhat unique.

"We would not see a similar trend within the University," she says. "There may very well be a reason that has driven up their [Radcliffe's] administrative costs."

One reason that Chamberlin suggests for the increase in administrative costs is the modernization of the human resources and information technology departments at Radcliffe.

According to Chamberlin, Radcliffe has created a human resources infrastructure "that never existed before. It seems like money well spent."

Radcliffe's director of human resources did not return phone messages.

Robert M. Kuhn, Radcliffe's director of information technologies (IT), explains that while his office's expenditures technically qualify as administrative costs, much of IT's spending goes to academic programs.

"There is a fuzzy line between what is administrative expense and what is spent on academic programs," he says.

He notes that Radcliffe is still spending its IT money on education, although the money is now funneled through a centralized, administrative base rather than through academic programs.